Posted on 12/28/2024 8:11:01 PM PST by lasereye
A ninth US telecom firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and telephone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said on Friday.
Officials from the administration of US President Joe Biden this month said that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon.
US Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger on Friday told reporters that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies about how to hunt for Chinese culprits in their networks.
The update from Neuberger is the latest development in a massive hacking operation that has alarmed national security officials, exposed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the private sector and laid bare China’s hacking sophistication.
The hackers compromised the networks of telecoms to obtain customer call records and gain access to the private communications of what officials have said is a limited number of individuals. Although the FBI has not publicly identified any of the victims, officials believe senior US government officials and prominent political figures are among those whose communications were accessed.
Neuberger said that officials did not yet have a precise sense how many Americans overall were affected, in part because the Chinese were careful about their techniques, but that a “large number” were in the Washington-Virginia area.
Officials believe the goal of the hackers was to identify who owned the phones and, if they were “government targets of interest,” spy on their texts and phone calls, she said.
The FBI said most of the people targeted by the hackers are “primarily involved in government or political activity.”
(Excerpt) Read more at taipeitimes.com ...
“With friends like these....”
Oh joy, with the Chinese we get both!
Then they should hack the fbi.
25% tariffs on all CHN goods. Tax the hacks!
They seem to know how to exploit the chinks in our security.
Puts a new slant on the subject.
The term “hack”. Even a tie-in to “drudge.”
Short for “hackney cab,” which referred to a carriage for hire drawn by a hackney, or an ordinary horse. .
The word “hackney” evolved to mean “horse for hire,” and then to mean a “drudge” or “prostitute” — leading to the use of “hack” to mean “writer for hire,” and the word “hackneyed,” which means cliche-ridden. The use of “hacker” to refer to a computer user dates back to the mid-1970s.
Well of course they do.
We stupidly allow them full access to our universities and tech.
Even if the students never INTENDED to be spies they have family for the CCP to threaten.
Some reason you or they couldn’t list the affected telecoms?
I don’t think they’ve disclosed that.
Dollars to donuts the Chinese hacked the FBI's backdoor into the devices.
If so, a typical own-goal by the Fabulous Bunch of Incompetents.
It should be considered an act of war, no different really from agents of a foreign power coming into the country and blowing up a dam or a power station. No need for instant retaliation, it would need to be carefully documented who was poking around and proof established of their connections to foreign governments, if it’s just private citizens engaging in criminal conduct, ask that government to deal with them and sanctions follow if they don’t co-operate with in a reasonable period.
Aye.
With security like this, it’s amazing we’re still standing....The DHS CISA need some serious housecleaning - in fact the DHS is as useless as a Biden/Sessions/Harris and needs to be put in the soup lines...
Thanks, free traitors.
No where can I find the list of companies. Why are they not listed?
I don’t think there is a public list. I think the government is keeping it secret.
OK, thanks.
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